Tony Stewart has some advice for Danica Patrick

2:49 PM, March 20, 2013
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Team owner Tony Stewart says of helping Danica Patrick learn about racing at Martinsville Speedway: 'You kind of just have to go do the first experience of it and get a feel for it on your own.' / Mark J. Rebilas, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports

by Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports

MARTINSVILLE, Va. â?? Tony Stewart has advice for Danica Patrick's first visit to Martinsville Speedway, but he's not sure he wants to tell her.

"I'm trying to decide whether I want to or not," he said. "Part of me as an owner wants to tell her everything I know to help her get through it, but part of me is like, 'You know what? It doesn't matter what you say. You kind of just have to go do the first experience of it and get a feel for it on your own.' "

Stewart, speaking to Martinsville area business leaders Wednesday, chuckled as he looked out the window from a suite high above the speedway. He originally included Martinsville on Patrick's difficult 10-race schedule last season but said it fell through due to logistics.

Now, Patrick is running her rookie season in the Sprint Cup Series and will show up for the April 5-7 race weekend having never seen the paperclip-shaped track. Stewart said it will be interesting â?? and entertaining -- to watch Patrick learn.

"As an owner, I'm going to be very nervous," he said. "As a driver, I'm going to be laughing a lot, because I remember my first time here."

Stewart compared racing at Martinsville for the first time to being a kid jumping in a bounce house. A kid might be bouncing along on the inflated surface, he said, when another kid suddenly jumps at exactly the same time.

"It throws you this way and off this way and you'll be like, 'What happened?' " he said. "There will be a lot of those moments when we come back here."

Stewart has three wins and 15 top-10s in 28 starts at the 0.526-mile track.

Ninety percent of the bumping incidents at Martinsville, Stewart said, are accidental. But Patrick isn't used to getting bumped, and Stewart has noticed his driver quickly gets defensive when she believes someone is trying to take advantage of her.

"If there's one thing she won't put up with, she won't put up with anybody bullying her," he said. "She may be this tall, but I don't even pick at her very much, because she just throws it back.

"The hard part will be pulling the reins back. Somebody will bump into her and she'll want to knock them through the fence. It'll be like, 'Wait a minute, it was probably just an accident!' "